Explore "The Noble Old Elm" by James Whitcomb Riley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
O big old tree, so tall an' fine, / Where all us childern swings an' plays, / Though neighbers says you're on the line / Between Pa's house an' Mr. Gray's, -- / Us childern used to almost fuss, / Old Tree, about you when we 'd play. -- / We'd argy you belonged to _us_, / An' them Gray-kids the other way!
Till _Elsie_, one time _she_ wuz here / An' playin' wiv us -- Don't you mind, / Old Mister Tree? -- an' purty near / She scolded us the hardest kind / Fer quar'llin' 'bout you thataway, / An' say _she'll_ find -- ef we'll keep still -- / Whose tree you air _fer shore_, she say, / An' settle it _fer good_, she will!
So all keep still: An' nen she gone / An' pat the Old Tree, an' says she, -- / "Whose air you, Tree? " an' nen let on / Like she's a-list'nin' to the Tree, -- / An' nen she say, "It's settled, -- 'cause / The Old Tree says he's _all_ our tree -- / His _trunk_ belongs to bofe your Pas, / But _shade_ belongs to you an' me. "